May 2021 coffee selection

Baby Rhys is here! Papa Alex will be roasting again soon, but for this month, in order to support his baby bonding, we’ve been featuring coffee from other roasters that we love. Appreciating good coffee (like learning to bake bread or sustaining friendships) improves with constant exploration coupled with curiosity.

This week we are featuring Mother Tongue Coffee’s rendition of Chiapas. Mother Tongue is a women-run roaster just over the water from us in Oakland. We poured their Bittersweet blend last weekend at our garden party, which has notes of creme brulee and dark chocolate.

The beans our subscribers will receive in the mail this week are this year’s harvest of the same Mexico Chiapas that we offered last year, and the producer, Rosalba Cifuentes, has improved their coffee quality this year by further investing in their growing and processing equipment.

You can learn more about Rosalba on a Boss Barista podcast takeover by our friends Cafetera Intelectual (a bilingual English-Spanish coffee podcast) or watch video of her on Royal Coffee’s site. The video is from Roast Magazine and I can’t recommend it highly enough—it’s very moving to see Rosalba and hear her story, and you also get a peek at Jen Apodaca of Mother Tongue roasting & speaking about Rosalba’s beans and what makes them special.

Two weeks ago we featured Coava Coffee’s Ethiopia Kilenso—one of Alex’s favorite coffees from 2020. This coffee is naturally processed, meaning the fruit and seed (“bean”) are dried together, for a fruitier flavor experience! Coava is a well-respected roastery based in Oregon, and our friends at Modern Coffee in Oakland regularly feature them.

Thank you again for supporting our little shop. We hope that you enjoyed our curated coffee expedition while we take this quick break from our regular roasting schedule.

Alex, Andrea & Rohan

Brrr but yum

Andrea’s sister Charlie (a long-time Blue Bottle barista) was the guest on bar with Alex while Zoe ducked out to be a brand-new mama.

Next month we’ll serve Tetrahedron again, last Saturday of the month, June 26th here at 312 Santa Clara Ave in Alameda.

Rhubarb Lemonade

This month’s coffee garden party featured chilly weather & the first time we offered iced beverages—not the best combo! But we’ll do it again—expect iced coffee and some kind of fruity lemonade henceforth.

Made from Scratch by Diallo

Cinnamon rolls! Creme brulee.

Night Heron

Bringing it—like always. Slow caramelized green onion miso scone, classic chocolate chip, charming golden cali corn and Admiral Maltings brownie…